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Hammond Guthrie is a painter and the author of As Ever
Was, a personal memoir about being a
“beat survivor.”
What is your professional and educational background? Do
you have a day job?
I became a practicing artist at 19. I began painting on my
own at 8. My high school education was in a military school and then I took
off. The bumper sticker said love it or leave it. I left it. I bought a ticket
to Europe and left. I am considered autodidactic. I am self-taught. I studied
under artists in Europe. It wasn’t until I studied to become a trauma nurse
that I went to school. I did trauma nursing for 10 years. I left that and came
back to writing and painting. In
the 80’s I went to the National Academy of Museum Studies at the University of
Leiden in the Netherlands to study Museology, the study of what happens to you
in a museum. I have never taken art or writing classes. I have had 5 careers.
I’ve led a very different life than most people. I didn’t have a real job until
30. I decided retirement was something to do at the beginning of life. I didn’t
want to wake up at 60 and do the things I’ve always wanted to do. I wanted to
do them when I was young. So now I
live as I’ve always lived by hook and by crook. I don’t have a job. My life is
my job. I’ve had periods of working. The rest of the time it’s been living as
close to the moment as possible. Most people need more structure to their
lives. Without the structure of job and finances they freak out. I’m not saying
it’s blissful. I wouldn’t recommend this lifestyle. I’ve moved 42 times and
that includes 12 Atlantic crossings.
Is As Ever Was
your first book?
No, but it’s my only book in print. The others were poetry
and drawings as well as some experimental writing.
Can you describe As Ever Was?
It’s a memoir that begins at birth and ends in 1976. It
covers my travels and my life. I am now working on the follow up, which will
end in1992. It’s called Biopathic Tendencies.
How long did it take you to write As Ever Was?
To actually write it took a year. The second book has been
in progress ever since I stopped writing the first book. I made up my mind,
unless I got adequate interest from an agent I wasn’t going to beat myself up
to get the second book done. The second book is still in draft progress, I have
recently sent off the first three chapters to an agent who is interested. I
imagine it could be finished in 6 to 7 months. So the second book would
probably take a little less than a year.
When you published the first book did you have an agent?
No. I didn’t have an agent for the first book. It took me a
year to write the book, a year to hustle the book and have it taken by a
publisher and a year for it to come out. And that’s pretty fast considering I
didn’t have representation.
How many queries letters did you send out?
Overall, I probably sent over 100 query letters to agents
and other writers asking for their advice. Of the letters I sent to agents 60%
did not respond. Eighty percent of the ones who did respond did so with a
standard rejection letter. Dear Author… But two provided me with a great deal
of invaluable information. Information I could not have bought. They showed me
what agents were looking for, so it was worth all the time just for those two
letters.
I sent 20 letters to publishers in the US. I also sent
letters to English publishers. In England they publish four times as many books
as the US and the average English reader reads six times as many books. Plus
the content of my book was interesting to English people since it partially
took place there. In the US they want blockbusters, books that will really
sell. Whereas the English are different in that regard.
Where there any downsides to having an English publisher?
They did a bang up job with the production of the book.
Everything went smoothly and I was very pleased. But after it came out, they
were done with it. There’s no PR, they just drop it and move onto the next
book. So I had to hustle it up and get the reviews. I had to get the
contributing photographer copies sent out. I had to do a lot of things that
writers shouldn’t have to do. It was a lot of work.
Can you tell me more details about how you marketed the
book?
I did a book signing and book reading in Britain. In the US
I worked on getting reviews.
First you’ve got to find people who will review it. Most
people want to review a book before it comes out, so I was at a bit of a
disadvantage. You figure out the most appropriate magazines and you contact
them and offer to send book to them.
You don’t just send one. You give a synopsis of the book and send a link
to the publishers website so they can see the book. And then they say send us a
copy. You have to contact the distributor and tell them to send so and so a
copy of the book. In my case I was at a disadvantage because several people
decided not to review the book because it was too old. But you have to keep
going at it. Even months after publication, I kept sending letters to
magazines. Then I posted all the reviews on Amazon. When someone told me they
liked the book I asked them to write a review on Amazon.
Another thing I did was go to the local library and ask them
to order my book. I introduced myself, showed them my book and said I am a
local author. They will usually say “great!” and order your book. In my case
they ordered six copies. When a book goes into the library system, then the
numbers go up and other libraries will order it. You can also ask your friends in other cities to request
your books at the library. The more libraries that carry it the more it will sell.
Then at a point you have to leave it and go on to the next book.
For the first book, at the advice of a well-published
writer, as I wrote the various sections of the book, I sent excerpts to
appropriate magazines. They would publish it and it would say it is from the
forth-coming book... So the whole time you are promoting it while you are
writing it. And I was really picky about which magazines I let publish it. By the time it comes out, sections of
it will already have been read and reviewed.
What was the scariest part of this whole book writing and
publishing process?
In my case, it was a personal memoir so there were sections
that caused me to go into extreme writers block. My particular attachment made
it hard for me to write about certain parts. Also, I guess wondering whether my
writing would be considered quality by other people was scary. I thought the
writing was fine, but you can’t trust yourself. What about the guy in Iowa or
New Hampshire? What about the book would attract him to buy that book? I want
the guy who never lived a life like mine to be interested enough to read my
book.
Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Write everyday. Don’t worry what you are writing about, just
write. Choose a genre and just write and a style that is yours will start to
emerge. It comes out of that writing. Have a set schedule. I generally write in
the morning from 8 am until the afternoon, take some lunch and then go back to
it. In the afternoon, I ask myself what comes next. If I know the answer I can
stop writing. If not, I am not done with my writing for that day. I do it 5
days a week. If I am closed to a finished draft I go to six, seven days a week.
Some advice given to me as a young writer: in order to write you have to live
first. At 19, the age that I was, when a successful author told me this, I
didn’t try to write, I just lived my life. I had to live more. It made a big
difference. When you’re young, you write these naïve things and no one is going
to publishing them. Write these things, love them, but don’t try to publish
them.
Agents: If you’ve got books in you, not just one book, but
if you know that you have material in you, you have to have an agent. It’s the
Holy Grail in this age. You almost can’t do it without one. All along, while
you are writing, think about agents, who they are, what they are, what they
want. So when the time comes you will know what to do.
Query letters: They should be as short and direct as
possible and ask as little as possible. Don’t send stuff to agents, they won’t
respond. But if you send concise, well-written letters than you might get a
response.
To learn more about the author and his book check out:
The 3rd Page
http://emptymirrorbooks.com/thirdpage/artistdirectory.html
SAF Publishing - London
http://www.safpublishing.com/news.htm
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